NZ Visual Diary - entry 146
New Zealand Guardian Trust Building - Queen Street detail
Now home to a clothing store (pictured here), a PB Tech electronics store and upper- floor apartments, the New Zealand Guardian Trust building has rich commercial and architectural histories.
The Heritage New Zealand website provides an informative overall of the building’s architectural pedigree and uses:
This steel-framed structure was one of Auckland's first 'high-rise' office blocks and marks an important transition between Victorian commercial structures and modern office buildings. It was built during the First World War as the headquarters of the New Zealand Insurance Company (NZI), which had been founded by local businessmen in 1859. The NZI specialised in marine and fire insurance, and had branches throughout the British Empire, America and the Far East. By the early 1900s most of the firm's profits came from its overseas operations, and it began to rebuild many of its offices from 1909, initially in Australia and then in New Zealand.
The eight-storey structure housed head and branch office accommodation, as well a further 137 offices for let to other firms. It replaced a three-storey NZI building on the site, which had itself been considered an imposing Queen Street landmark. Designed by William Gummer, the new structure was modelled on turn-of-the-century commercial buildings in America and elsewhere, and was of Stripped Classical style. Stripped Classical adapted nineteenth-century classical architecture to the requirements of twentieth-century office blocks, which included a need for height and a large amount of natural light.1
The ponderous solidity of the building’s architectural foundation and ground floor speaks to the need of commercial enterprises generally, and financial institutions specifically, to convey trustworthiness and unshakeable dependability through the visual presentation of its building’s architecture.
Indeed, this secondary entrance to NZ Guardian Trust Building boldly asserts its character of steadfast authority and reliance.
from < https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/623 >